3 research outputs found
Selecting sites to prove the concept of IAR4D in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site
Selecting sites is an essential step in enabling the assessment of the impact of Integrated
Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site. This paper
reports on the process of identifying distinct administrative territories (sites) in which to establish
innovation platforms and to monitor similar communities that are experiencing alternative
agricultural research for development interventions. We show how the research design for the Sub-
Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSACP) has been modified to take into account the key
conditioning factors of the LKPLS without relinquishing robustness. A key change is the explicit
incorporation of accessibility to multiple markets. Candidate sites were stratified according to the
national political context, followed by good and poor accessibility to markets and finally according
to security considerations and agro-ecology. Randomisation was carried out at all levels, although
the need for paired counterfactual sites required the diagnosis of conditioning factors at the site
level. Potential sites were characterised in terms of existing or recent agricultural research
initiatives, as well as local factors that would have a direct effect on the success of interventions
seeking to improve productivity, ameliorate the degradation of natural resources and enhance
incomes through better links to markets. Fourteen sites were selected during the initial phase, and a
further ten sites were added one year afterwards due to the need for more innovation platforms to
test IAR4D. The site selection was successful in pairing action and counterfactual sites in terms of
the baseline socioeconomic conditions of farming households. The unavoidable proximity of action
and counterfactual sites, however, allows the possibility of spill-over effects and could reduce the
measurable impact of IAR4D
Principles, design and processes of integrated agricultural research for development: experiences and lessons from LKPLS under the SSACP
With increasing recognition holding the promise of overcoming the outstanding problems faced by
African agriculture, IAR4D faces the danger of being ‘blurred’ by past approaches and falling
short of its potential to deliver the desired impacts in diverse multi-stakeholder, biophysical, socio-economic, cultural, technological and market contexts unless its actualisation and working is
clearly understood. In this paper, we present the conceptualisation and principles of and
knowledge-based experiences and lessons from the implementation of the sub-Saharan Africa
Challenge Programme (SSACP) in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site (LKPLS). The presentation
covers the formation and facilitation of IPs for the actualisation of IAR4D to evolve mechanisms for
the early recognition of interlinked issues in natural resource management, productivity and value
addition technologies, markets, gender and policy arrangements. These have autonomously
triggered flexible, locally directed interactions to innovate options from within or outside their
environment for resolving the challenges, and have moved along a new institutional and
technological change trajectory. Emerging lessons point to the endowment of IP members with selfhelp
knowledge interactions, training in IAR4D, quality of facilitation and research to be key
determinants of the power behind of self-regulating mechanisms